The
Hubble Heritage Project

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a research tool
dedicated to scientific studies of nature. Enroute
to illuminating the forces shaping our cosmos, HST
has accumulated a cosmic zoo. The Hubble Heritage
Project sees this instrument also as a tool for
extending human vision, one that is capable of building
a bridge between the endeavors of scientists and
the public. By emphasizing compelling HST images
distilled from scientific data, we hope to pique
curiosity about our astrophysical understanding
of the universe we all inhabit.

The fact that not all members of the Hubble Heritage
Project team have backgrounds in astronomy or are
professional astrophysicists explains our atypical
approach to constructing the pictures you'll find
at our website. Rather than being one individual's
expression, the images and website are visions
produced by collaboration. Our process is similar
to that of writing a scientific paper, or doing
an experiment, with several contributors. In other
words, as well as doing specified tasks, each member
participates in directing the image composition,
color selection, and other aspects. Participation from
former team members and support from student interns
has aided in the overall success of our project.

Additionally, our astronomical background influences
which image processing techniques we employ and
our aesthetic decisions. For example, astronomical
detectors are much more sensitive than the human
eye. So we've decided that our final images should
not be restricted to the scope of the human visual
perception, either in brightness or in spectral
range. In most cases, color assignments and brightness contrasts
which emphasize subtle structures, as well as physical
processes which generate delicate light effects,
will take precedence over attaining, say, natural
color.

The original source material for the Hubble Heritage
Project images is HST data obtained in 2 ways. Primarily
we mine the rich HST public archive of exposures
that has been accumulating for a decade. Since HST
is a research instrument, many of the most visually
interesting objects, however, were never selected
for study and therefore are missing from this archive.
Additionally the favorites that have been scientific
targets often lack HST exposures across a color
range or the telescope's field of view only covers
a small, unrecognizable portion of the form. Fortunately
the Hubble Heritage Project has been granted a small
amount of observing time. It is enough to satisfy
the dual purpose of obtaining scientifically useful
data and generating visually intriguing images of
a few objects. A few astronomers have been guest
collaborators, helping us acquire some data. As
well visitors to this website have been invited
to help select a target.

Although each month we plan to exhibit, at this
website gallery, one additional picture distilled
from HST exposures, we invite you to visit us more
often. The
supplemental stories and information will be updated
continually. Also, raw data of the favorite targets
will be posted as soon as the observations occur
and other activities will be announced as those
events draw near.